July 2009

[delete this account pls]

I hadn't even realized they had made a movie. How far ahead would you say it spoils the books? I've read all five that have been released in English.

Ben, it spoils parts of the book that have yet to be even written, particularly the fates of several characters. Perez-Reverte helped with the screenplay and apparently freely offered up parts of the future stories he means to write. It's not in-depth by any means, so there's plenty still to tell, but I was a bit annoyed to find out this-and-that person die in this-and-that way. Of course, I suppose Perez-Reverte can always change tack if he wants to, but I have a feeling he won't.

I should have changed the channel, but I couldn't help myself. The quality of the production design was pretty amazing (apparently it was the most expensive Spanish film ever made, and it shows)

[beniowa]

Ben, it spoils parts of the book that have yet to be even written, particularly the fates of several characters. Perez-Reverte helped with the screenplay and apparently freely offered up parts of the future stories he means to write. It's not in-depth by any means, so there's plenty still to tell, but I was a bit annoyed to find out this-and-that person die in this-and-that way. Of course, I suppose Perez-Reverte can always change tack if he wants to, but I have a feeling he won't.

I should have changed the channel, but I couldn't help myself. The quality of the production design was pretty amazing (apparently it was the most expensive Spanish film ever made, and it shows)

Thanks for the warning! I hate reading a book after watching a movie so I'd certainly hate to be spoiled. I'll probably wait until after a few more books have been released.

[Black Dow]

I just finished An Autumn War by Daniel Abraham. It was everything that I now would come to expect from Abraham. I have tried to start Nights of Villjamur but am unable to get into it at this point, which is odd, because it's obviously well-written and the type of book that I would generally enjoy. I think I'm just suffering a bit of 'fantasy burn-out' at the moment so I will put aside for a few weeks and try again later when I'm 'fresher'.

[fitheach]

John Crowley's 'Little, Big'. It is astonishing.

One of my favorite novels- I want everyone to read it!

[BookWyrm]

One of my favorite novels- I want everyone to read it!

Well, I'm trying, but as of now I have mixed feelings. The writing is beautiful, but I feel like a lot of it is going over my head. Maybe I'll talk to Mr. Crowley about it this Thursday ( doubt it :P )!

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished Ghost Ship by Brian Hicks. It is about the Mary Celeste. It went alot of detail about the Briggs family (the captain of the Mary Celeste), the trial of the Dei Gratia officers who found the derelict and the theories/hoaxes to explain the missing crew. It had alot of interesting background details (such as Benjamin Brigg's letters to his family) and trying to sort of fact from fiction was fascinating as well. The author's explanation of the missing crew is the most obvious and elegant solution I have come across. Recommended for those who want to know more about the facts and the background of the Mary Celeste mystery.

Up next is a short fantasy trilogy such as the Riddlemaster (by McKilip) or Sarah Hoyt's Magical British Empire.

[Betlwedl]

I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray yesterday, and I ended up quite enjoying it. I didn't even find Chapter 11 to be as bad as I had heard. I'm now looking forward to reading some of Wilde's other work.

[Isis]

I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray yesterday, and I ended up quite enjoying it. I didn't even find Chapter 11 to be as bad as I had heard. I'm now looking forward to reading some of Wilde's other work.

Yay! Good news. You could try reading some of his fairy tales, if you like them and if you can find them collected together.

[Ealdorman Halasahr]

So, what about me?

What I am reading at the moment?

Well, let's see. Yesterday I got Joe Abercrombie's latest piece of art (I hope, since I liked his first three books) How to eat a cold meal ...? What? I mean Best Served Cold. Sorry. I have read two pages in this hardback copy so far.

I also received a nice paperback copy of Tim Lebbon's Dusk. I've read the first chapter, oh yeah, I'm such a speed-reader aren't I, and now I'm a bit scared. It was a brutal, bloody start. I'm not into meaningless slaughter-everyone-at-sight-kind-of-books, so we'll just have to see whatever happens next.

Then, of course, I'm rereading some book about a violent encounter of rulers, A Clash of Kings. And that one we all know is a good one, don't we?

So, reading is fun and all, but right now I'm mostly looking forward to go to Finland and attend the Finncon. A fun weekend lies ahead, I reckon.

[Deornoth]

Finished reading Simon Woodworth's 'Through Violet Eyes', a police procedural/urban fantasy thriller where a serial killer is hunting down people who can channel the spirits of the dead. I loved the concept and the work that had gone into the background setting but the elements of the plot and the characters were far too predictable to make this book really stand out. My full review is over Here. I'm now reading Max Allan Collins' novelisation of the new GI Joe movie. It's ok but isn't really anything special so far...

[Werthead]

Reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Galileo's Dream. Was anticipating a heavy, scientifically rigorous and slightly dull account of Galileo's life in the mode of much of KSR-post Red Mars work.

Instead, it's relatively light and easy to read with a great sense of humour and which uses the science to support the narrative instead of the other way around. Thoroughly and surprisingly enjoyable.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I changed my mind. I'm on a nautical disaster kick after reading about the Mary Celeste, so I'll read Fastnet Force 10 by John Rousmaniere next. It is about the worst disaster in history in the sport of yacht racing where 77 boats were capsized and 15 sailors died in 1979.

[Procrastimancer]

After finishing Lord of Light I was left to search for another book to read. I have many that I have not yet read and each time I have come to face the end of a book with some amount of dread because I know that I will once again have to brave the stack(s) to figure out what to read next. I picked up Green by Jay Lake and even read a few pages, but decided that I just wasn't in the mood for that. The same thing happened with The City and the City the previous search. For a short while I thought about reading one of the anthologies on my shelf, but my ability to retain interest throughout those is rather low. Eventually I settled on Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolfe, which has been sitting at the bottom of one of my piles for sometime now, since I do not own--and have not read--the first books, but apparently that fact doesn't really matter since Latro can't remember anything anyway. I have a habit of not being able to make it very far into Wolfe's novels, so I am hoping this is the first one to defy that.

[delete this account pls]

Newly arrived from the Book Depository; Angel's Game by Carlos Zafon, Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston, and Homicide: A Life on the Killing Streets by David Simon.

Decided to start with Homicide, a book I've wanted to read ever since I first saw The Wire all those years ago.

[RedEyedGhost]

Well I finally finished Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold... and unfortunately I'm not as enamored with it as the rest of the board is. I'm a huge fan of The First Law trilogy, but this one just didn't do it for me. It's more than 500 pages long, and has enough story for about half of that. There's several different parts, but they all lead to the same result and after the first few, reading them became tedious. I don't have to like the characters I'm reading about but I sure have to care about their stories, and I couldn't give a damn about 90% of the characters' stories in this book. It wasn't all bad, but what I did like about the books was all the links that it had to the trilogy and that's just not enough for me. In fact I nearly gave up on it 3/4s through the book something I thought I would never consider with one of Joe's books :(.

With all the love it's getting in the reading threads I was a little worried that I was alone in this, but after reading the spoiler thread it looks like I'm not alone (although we're a very small minority).

I'm still very much looking forward to the next book, but my expectations aren't nearly as high (and tbh that may have been part of my problem).

6/10

I'm about a third of the way through Fool Moon by Jim Butcher, and so far it's flowing very well and is very engaging.

[beniowa]

I finished Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson and thought it was a pretty good book. I can see what some people meant about some of the main characters being extremely naive. Thankfully, that didn't bother me too much. And it changed quite a bit toward the end of the book. Sanderson has a knack for creating interesting worlds and magic systems. Definitely looking forward to his next series, The Way of Kings.

For my next book, I'll be reading an ARC of The Sheriff of Yrnameer by Michael Rubens for a later review for BSC Review.

Well I finally finished Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold... and unfortunately I'm not as enamored with it as the rest of the board is.

Sorry you didn't like the book, REG. If everyone had the exact same opinions about every book, this forum would be a boring place. :) Personally, I really liked Best Served Cold, but thought it wasn't quite as good as The First Law.

[Deornoth]

Finished reading Max Allan Collins' novelisation of the new GI Joe movie. If the story had been fleshed out a little more then this could have been good. What we get though is a retelling of the movie without the impact that it would have on the screen, it felt like half a story to me... My full review is over Here. I'm now finishing off 'The Hunger Games' (Suzanne Collins).

[pat5150]

Just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafón's excellent The Angel's Game. Though it may not be as amazing as The Shadow of the Wind, it is nevertheless one of the best books you'll read this year.

Check the blog for the full review. . . :)

Patrick

[AprilFool]

Have recently read:

Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas - loved it! The Dragons as primal, evil? creatures controlled by drugs is a great idea. Love that one has got loose, and can't wait for the next book.

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury - Summer seemed the perfect time to start this book, but I never really got into it. I put it down for a while and will maybe try again in a month or so.

Twelve by Jasper Kent - Good book, but not great. I will not be rushing out for the next one. I love the concept, but the book just seemed slow, and I never became invested in the characters.

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson - another great book by him with another unique magic system. I love his stuff.

Just started Green by Jay Lake. Seems good 60 pages in.

[Deornoth]

Finished reading 'The Hunger Games' (after seeing that Peadar had enjoyed it, I think it was peadar...) which is very much 'Battle Royale' for eleven year olds (and up). While it's a great read (well drawn world full of exciting and tense moments) I couldn't help thinking that it's target audience stopped the author from fully exploring some of the themes under discussion. To be fair though, if I was an eleven year old reading this for the first time I'd probably be saying something quite different! My full review is over Here. I'm now midway through Jasper Kent's 'Twelve', hoping to finish it for tomorrow but it's been heavy going so far...